As more functionality is integrated within mobile computing platforms, the need to reduce power consumption becomes increasingly important. Furthermore, users expect increasingly longer battery life in mobile computing platforms, furthering the need for creative power conservation solutions. Mobile computer designers have responded by implementing power management solutions such as, reducing processor and chipset clock speeds, intermittently disabling unused components, and reducing power required by display devices, such as a Liquid Crystal Diode (LCD) or “flat panel” display.
Power consumption in flat-panel display monitors increases with flat panel display backlight brightness. In some computer systems, flat panel display backlight power consumption can soar as high as 6 Watts when the backlight is at maximum luminance. In a mobile computing system, such as a laptop computer system, this can significantly shorten battery life. In order to reduce flat panel power consumption and thereby increase battery life, mobile computing system designers have designed power management systems to reduce the flat-panel display backlight brightness while the system is in battery-powered mode. However, in reducing backlight brightness in a flat panel display, the user is often left with a display image that is of lower quality than when the mobile computing platform is operating on AC power. This reduction in display image quality can result from a reduction in color or brightness contrast among display image features within the display image when backlight brightness is reduced.
Display image quality is further effected by ambient light surrounding a display monitor in which an image is displayed, reducing the number of environments in which a user can use a mobile computing system comfortably. Ambient light brightness effects the display image quality regardless of whether the computer system is operating on battery power.
Finally, display image quality can be affected by a computer program being executed within a computer system. Computer programs that use computer graphics features to generate display images on a display are often created with a particular display monitor type in mind. As a result, the quality of graphics images generated by a computer program may vary across display monitor types.